Tuition rate plan holds up budget

Three SUNY senators, including Breslin of Bethlehem, ask change

Published 1:00 am, Thursday, July 1, 2010

ALBANY -- A dispute over whether to allow public universities to raise tuition rates on their own is one of the key issues holding up passage of the state budget.

Several Democrats in the closely divided Senate have publicly refused to commit to vote for the final budget bill -- containing taxes on clothing and reducing deductions for high-income earners -- until a version of the tuition plan is passed. The Public Higher Education Empowerment and Innovation Act, would allow flagship SUNY and CUNY campuses to raise tuition and invest the additional funds, and also enter into public-private partnerships without legislative approval.

The plan wasn't included in the budget deal the legislative houses reached last Friday, and almost derailed passage of the education portion of that spending plan when Senators Bill Stachowski, D-Buffalo and Brian Foley, D-Long Island, refused to sign on without the reforms. They indicated they might settle for a pilot program that includes the campuses in Buffalo and Stony Brook, in their districts.

On Wednesday, Sen. Neil Breslin, a Bethlehem Democrat, jumped on the wagon, saying "the University at Albany is the flagship university in the state system. Any project either complete or in part should include the University at Albany."

"I'm working internally to make sure that the University at Albany has the highest priority," Breslin said.

The three senators are refusing to commit to a revenue bill after the failure of the university plan. They've forced Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson to back away from a vote on the bill until a compromise is reached. Particularly for Stachowski, the issue is critical.

"Bill Stachowski can't go home without it," said one person familiar with the negotiations. "Every single stakeholder in Buffalo supports it and has it as their number one thing ... the poor guy is now carrying the whole thing himself, with John Sampson's help."

The problem is, their refusal to approve the budget can't move the Democrats who control the Assembly.

Many Assembly Democrats -- including Deborah Glick, a Manhattan Democrat who chairs the chamber's Higher Education Committee -- have reservations about the plan. Members discussed it privately Tuesday evening, and emerged with a negative consensus after debate one member called "heated."

"If we have to talk about a substantive issue that has no impact on the budget, we're prepared to talk about it," said Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. "But the one thing that this conference has stood for is an affordable education from pre-K to B.A., so that we are not going to put SUNY education out of the reach of anybody who wants it in this state."

Others continue to push. Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, D-Buffalo, is in favor of some type of action and said he would be "extremely disappointed if it was my house that ended up blocking some sort of compromise from happening."

Silver and Sampson stress that talks continue. Gov. David Paterson has agreed to implement it in a more limited form -- and tie it to increases in tuition assistance -- but the language was rejected. SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher on Wednesday she remains "optimistic" about the act.